The Garden of Ninfa

Ninfa was a town on the road south from Rome that was abandoned in the fourteenth century and left to fall down, and the ruins stayed empty for six hundred years because the plain around them was malarial. From the 1920s the Caetani family, who owned the land, planted a garden through the standing walls: roses, magnolias, maples and bamboo along a river that comes out of the hill above, cold and completely clear. Church walls, a tower and the lines of the old streets are still there underneath the planting. The site is protected as a natural monument and access is limited to guided visits on fixed dates to keep the numbers down.

History

The garden of 105 hectares holds the ruins of the medieval settlement of Ninfa, whose name seems to come from a classical nymphaeum, a temple to the nymphs, on an island in the small lake, and it is now an Italian natural monument (Wikipedia, Garden of Ninfa).

What you'll find

• The ruins under the planting - church walls, a tower and the old street lines.
• The river - spring-fed, cold and clear, running through the middle of the garden.
• The roses - trained over the standing walls, at their best in May.
• The lake - formed by the same spring water at the foot of the garden.

When to go

Open on set dates from spring into autumn, mostly at weekends, with visits by guided tour at fixed times. Book well ahead, because the good dates sell out. May is the best of the roses and the water. Mornings are coolest. Check the published calendar before planning anything else around it.

Things to know

You cannot wander: visits are guided, timed and follow a fixed route, which frustrates people who came to photograph. The number of open dates is small and the popular ones go weeks in advance. There is no useful public transport and a car is effectively required. Mosquitoes near the water are persistent even in spring.

Nearby

Sermoneta stands on the hill directly above; the Circeo coast is south.